The conga is a tall, narrow, single-headed musical drum. Although ultimately derived from African drums made from hollowed logs, the Cuban conga is staved, like a barrel. Most modern congas have a staved wooden or fiberglass shell, and a screw-tensioned drumhead. They are usually played in sets of two to four with the fingers and palms of the hand.
The tuning system on a conga drum generally requires a musician to tune the drum from the side of the drum. FIG. 1 illustrates an exemplary prior art tuning system for a conga drum 10. The conga drum 10 includes a drum shell 12, an open playing end 14, and a skin 16 that is affixed to a ring 20. The ring 20 is secured to the drum shell 12 by a collection of prior art tuning assemblies 40, such that the skin is drawn across the open playing end 14. A collection of side plates 18 are distributed about the periphery of the drum shell 12.
Each of the prior art tuning assemblies 40 includes a threaded tuning hook 42. The upper portion of threaded tuning hook is inserted through holes in the ring 20, and the threaded lower portion is passed through an opening in the side plate 18. A nut 44 is threaded onto the threaded lower portion of the threaded tuning hook 42. The nut is generally tightened using a tool such as a box end wrench. As nuts 44 are tightened, the threaded tuning hooks 42, and in turn the ring 20, are drawn downward causing the skin 16 to be tunably stretched across the open playing end 14. The arrangement of the threaded tuning hooks 42 and the nuts 44 typically require the musician to tune the drum from its side. In many cases, the space needed to tune the drum may require a percussionist to remove the conga drum from its stand which may be time consuming or inconvenient, especially during a performance. The musician may also have to rotate the drum in order to reach all the tuning points.